Native American Vets Seek Notice; A Grass-Roots Movement Is Pushing for a Memorial at the National Mall in Washington

Bryan, Susan Montoya, St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. * The Navajo Code Talkers are legendary. Then
there was Cpl. Ira Hamilton Hayes, the Pima Indian who became a
symbol of courage and patriotism when he and his fellow Marines
raised the flag over Iwo Jima in 1945.

Before World War II and in the decades since, tens of thousands
of American Indians have enlisted in the Armed Forces to serve their
country at a rate much greater than any other ethnicity.

Yet, among all the monuments and statues along the National Mall
in Washington, not one stands in recognition.

A grass-roots effort is brewing among tribes across the country
to change that, while Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, has introduced
legislation that would clear the way for the National Museum of the
American Indian to begin raising private funds for a memorial.

"This is not a political gamble for anyone, and it's not
politically threatening for anyone," said Jefferson Keel, a retired
Army officer and president of the National Congress of American
Indians. "This is something that both sides of the aisle can get
behind and support, because it's not going to cost a lot of money
for the country. It's just something that needs to be done."

The push for a memorial can be traced to the 1980s when the well-
known Three Soldiers sculpture was unveiled near the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial. Depicted are three American soldiers: one white,
one black and one Hispanic.

During the Vietnam era, the federal government says more than
42,000 Native Americans served in the military and 90 percent of
those service members were volunteers.

"I've come across veterans from throughout the whole country,
from the East Coast all the way to California, and a lot of Indians
who people believe that there should be something on the National
Mall. We're not there, we haven't been recognized," said Steven
Bowers, a Vietnam veteran and member of the Seminole tribe in
Florida.

Bowers is spearheading an effort to gain support from the
nation's tribes to erect a soldier statue on the National Mall in
recognition of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians
who have served over the years. …

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